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People can change. Meet Avraham Sinai -- a former Shi'ite from Lebanon who converted to Judaism.

by Idan Avni

Avraham Sinai's story is difficult to understand. Born 42 years ago in a Shi'ite village in eastern Lebanon, today he is an Orthodox Jew who studies in a yeshiva and is raising his seven children in Tzfat. On his walls are pictures of rabbis. His oldest son, Haim, served in the Givati brigade. His second daughter will be drafted soon. The younger children play Hezbollah terrorist and "shoot" each other.

Only the pita bread and the labeneh hint at the past of this Orthodox family from Tzfat, at its former life in Lebanon in the shadow of the Israel-Hezbollah war. Sinai has published a book about his road from Lebanon to Judaism, A Martyr from Lebanon: Life in the Shadow of Danger.

Today he is an integral part of the city's Orthodox community, and his previous life seems very far away. His family was with the South Lebanese Army (SLA), a Lebanese militia closely allied with Israel. Sinai, however, says that his connection to Israel preceded the SLA-IDF alliance.

At the age of 17 he began actively assisting Israeli intelligence.

"In the early 1980s the Palestinian terrorist organizations controlled large areas of Lebanon. They were harassing the Shi'ites, and it was natural for us to help the Jews against them. My family had good relations with IDF intelligence. Since I was a child I remember IDF officers hanging around our house."

Sinai says that at the age of 17 he began actively assisting Israeli intelligence, passing on information on the activities of the PLO and other Palestinian organizations in Lebanon. But then, he says, came the important chapter of his life, the one he is most proud of.

"After the power of the Palestinians declined, my handlers tried to convince me to join Hezbollah. At first I didn't want to. It was frightening. But my handlers pressured me."

How was the first contact with Hezbollah made?

"It was the period in Lebanon when everyone was fighting everyone else. The Shi'ite Amal organization was Hezbollah's big adversary in the battle for control of the Shi'ites. I began passing information to Hezbollah about Amal. It was my first job with Hezbollah. They saw that they could depend on me, and that's how I began to rise through the ranks."

He has no pictures or documents to back up his story that he served for 10 years in Hezbollah, but Sinai insists he was a senior Hezbollah intelligence officer. He even claims that he met Abbas Musawi, who was then Hezbollah's leader.

"He would come to our village to give a sermon. His speeches were cruel, and preached hatred and war against Israel. At the end of every sermon I shook his hand and we spoke. We became friendly. He knew me personally, and we would talk about operational matters as well. I haven't met Nasrallah face to face."

In 1992 Masawi was killed by the IDF. Israel had received information that allowed its helicopters to identify the car in which he was traveling. To this day the people who passed the information on Masawi's movements have not been caught.

"They always suspected me of being in touch with Israel," says Sinai. "I was interrogated after Masawi's murder, but they concluded that I was clean."

According to Sinai, his double life was hard. Nevertheless, in all his years in Hezbollah he never stopped passing sensitive and secret information to Israel on Hezbollah's operational plans.

Are there specific activities that you can reveal?

"A large part of what I did will only be able to be told after I'm dead."

"Once I knew about a car bomb that was on its way to the Israeli border to carry out a suicide bombing. I called my handler directly and reported to him about the car. Israel sent a helicopter into the air which shot the car and blew it up. I reported to my handlers on the movements of Hezbollah officers. Many officers were killed because of explosive devices that Israel hid as a result of information I conveyed. But a large part of what I did will only be able to be told after I'm dead."

FULFILLING HIS DREAM

Throughout those years he knew his time was limited, that his connection with his Israeli handlers would be exposed. One day, he relates, a relative of his came and told him that the Syrians had identified his conversations and meeting places with the Israelis.

"I knew that they were on to me," he says. "I took myself and ran away to southern Lebanon. I circumvented the Syrian and Hezbollah checkpoints. They explained to me that my name and picture were being shown at the checkpoints, and if I went through there they'd catch me and kill me."

According to Sinai, after being exposed he went to live in southern Lebanon and brought his family there. "There were SLA people in the south, and the IDF controlled the area. But then people from the Mossad came to me and said that it was too dangerous and that I had to go live in Israel."

In 1997 he left southern Lebanon and moved to Tzfat. "I insisted that I wanted to live in a Jewish city. Even in Lebanon I dreamed of living in Israel. I would sit on Jebel Baruch, look at northern Israel, and dream that I was moving there."

After fulfilling his dream and moving to Tzfat, Sinai decided that the time had come to convert to Judaism. "I told my wife that after all these things I'd gone through in Lebanon, I'd reached the conclusion that the truth is in Judaism." A senior officer introduced him to Tzfat Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, who began the conversion process with him.

"One day an officer who had studied with me in the yeshiva came to me and told me that this man wanted to convert," Rabbi Eliyahu relates. "The officer told me what had happened to Sinai, and after I confirmed the story we began the conversion process." The rabbi is still accompanying Sinai on his Jewish journey, and the two have become good friends.

In the recent war in Lebanon Sinai personally experienced the Katyushas that were fired at Israel. Hezbollah's professional ability did not surprise him. "Hezbollah is a very compartmentalized organization; its field security is very good. The terrorists in Bint J'beil didn't know anything about the armaments of the terrorists in Ita a-Sha'ab, and vice versa."

Sinai's family doesn't know much about the life he describes in his book. The family home looks like a typical Orthodox home. The young children don't know a word of Arabic. The only hint of the family's previous life is the food they eat.

Sinai is not especially concerned about whether his book will become a bestseller. After all, he is convinced he will have at least one reader: "I'm sure that Nasrallah will be the first to buy the book. I have no doubt that it will reach Hezbollah quickly."

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Visitor Comments: 8

(8)
shlomo-zalman,
March 24, 2011 4:14 AM

may Hashem keep him and his family safe from harm.

may Hashem keep him and his family safe from harm.

(7)
vixi,
September 26, 2010 6:56 PM

What was his former name , village, school he attended, name ofhis neighbours , friends....sounds like something out of the X files.

(6)
DanielvanDalen,
November 6, 2006 2:27 AM

Better be careful

Plenty of Muslims in northern Israel who will want to take revenge on Avraham. He'd better carry a gun 24/7. Wouldn't want to stand in his shoes.

I greatly admire him. When I go to Tzfas sometime soon, iy'h I'll try to find him to meet him.

(5)
daniela,
September 26, 2006 2:44 PM

Great story

Avraham Sinai continues to be brave man by writting a book that can reach his enemies. I admire his courage. May he be blessed. Maybe it will also reach other muslim who might start to rethink violence against Israel.

(4)
yonatan,
September 26, 2006 9:34 AM

Great story

Another great article by Aish.

Shalom

(3)
charlesmartinez,
September 25, 2006 7:22 PM

one brave man

this man lived the life of a true patriot, danger at every turn for him and his family. i admire him for his courage and his determination to convert . a true hero.

I've been striving to get more into spirituality. But it seems that every time I make some progress, I find myself slipping right back to where I started. I'm getting discouraged and feel like a failure. Can you help?

The Aish Rabbi Replies:

Spiritual slumps are a natural part of spiritual growth. There is a cycle that people go through when at times they feel closer to God and at times more distant. In the words of the Kabbalists, it is "two steps forward and one step back." So although you feel you are slipping, know that this is a natural process. The main thing is to look at your overall progress (over months or years) and be able to see how far you've come!

This is actually God's ingenious way of motivating us further. The sages compare this to teaching a baby how to walk. When the parent is holding on, the baby shrieks with delight and is under the illusion that he knows how to walk. Yet suddenly, when the parent lets go, the child panics, wobbles and may even fall.

At such times when we feel spiritually "down," that is often because God is letting go, giving us the great gift of independence. In some ways, these are the times when we can actually grow the most. For if we can move ourselves just a little bit forward, we truly acquire a level of sanctity that is ours forever.

Here is a practical tool to help pull you out of the doldrums. The Sefer HaChinuch speaks about a great principle in spiritual growth: "The external awakens the internal." This means that although we may not experience immediate feelings of closeness to God, eventually, by continuing to conduct ourselves in such a manner, this physical behavior will have an impact on our spiritual selves and will help us succeed. (A similar idea is discussed by psychologists who say: "Smile and you will feel happy.")

That is the power of Torah commandments. Even if we may not feel like giving charity or praying at this particular moment, by having a "mitzvah" obligation to do so, we are in a framework to become inspired. At that point we can infuse that act of charity or prayer with all the meaning and lift it can provide. But if we'd wait until being inspired, we might be waiting a very long time.

May the Almighty bless you with the clarity to see your progress, and may you do so with joy.

In 1940, a boatload 1,600 Jewish immigrants fleeing Hitler's ovens was denied entry into the port of Haifa; the British deported them to the island of Mauritius. At the time, the British had acceded to Arab demands and restricted Jewish immigration into Palestine. The urgent plight of European Jewry generated an "illegal" immigration movement, but the British were vigilant in denying entry. Some ships, such as the Struma, sunk and their hundreds of passengers killed.

If you seize too much, you are left with nothing. If you take less, you may retain it (Rosh Hashanah 4b).

Sometimes our appetites are insatiable; more accurately, we act as though they were insatiable. The Midrash states that a person may never be satisfied. "If he has one hundred, he wants two hundred. If he gets two hundred, he wants four hundred" (Koheles Rabbah 1:34). How often have we seen people whose insatiable desire for material wealth resulted in their losing everything, much like the gambler whose constant urge to win results in total loss.

People's bodies are finite, and their actual needs are limited. The endless pursuit for more wealth than they can use is nothing more than an elusive belief that they can live forever (Psalms 49:10).

The one part of us which is indeed infinite is our neshamah (soul), which, being of Divine origin, can crave and achieve infinity and eternity, and such craving is characteristic of spiritual growth.

How strange that we tend to give the body much more than it can possibly handle, and the neshamah so much less than it needs!